Pipe Organ Builders in the Netherlands
By Carl Dodrill
Phil Jamison and Bob Conant have indicated an interest in pipe organ builders in the Netherlands, and my wife, Halie, and myself were just there, and had a chance to tour one factory and see a series of organs. The factory that we toured was the Reil Brothers, the address of which is as follows:
Orgelmakerij Gebr. Reil
Postbus 21
8180 AA Heerde
The Netherlands (I don't know a phone number; no e-mail)
We were warmly greeted by Albert Reil, a co-owner with his brother Johan. He spent nearly two hours with us going through the plant after we first had coffee and a chance to hear some of his philosophy of organ building. We really hit it off, especially since I had had the chance to volunteer for several periods of time at the organ shop of Paul Fritts in Tacoma, Washington, and since they make highly similar organs. The organs made are all tracker organs greatly influenced by Schnitger but with many pipes having a high lead content (about 96%). This is exactly the case with Paul Fritts, and the result are sounds which are unusually intense, clear and brillant. For the Reil organs, all woodwork is oak, and a tremendous amount of oak in various stages of drying is to be found under shelters outside the building.
The Reil shop is in Heerde, which is about 15-20 miles north of Apeldoorn which is about 75-80 east of Amsterdam. About 25 employees make two to three organs at time in an excellent large facility. The shop also does restoration of organs. It was well woth the visit, and it was a high point to our recent trip to the Netherlands.
Incidentally, in Apeldoorn is Louw Talstra who helped us to make the contact with the Reil shop, and who is a church organist and let us play the organ at his church (a 1m11r 1940 tubularpneumatic). His e-mail address is <ltaslstra@xs4all.nl>, he is very friendly and an excellent contact. He does not have an interest in automatic musical instruments, however, as far as I know.
If anyone contacts either Albert Reil or Louw Talstra, feel free to mention our names.
Carl Dodrill
cdodrill@u.washington.edu |
(Message sent Fri 25 Oct 1996, 18:12:09 GMT, from time zone GMT-0700.) |
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